Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 414 Twists and Turns, the Rebirth of Humanity
The development of Bailu Plain was naturally not without its challenges.

In fact, in the preceding months, all sorts of bizarre situations have occurred repeatedly. Today, news comes that noble children are beating up villagers, and tomorrow, a scandal breaks out that water conservancy facilities have been maliciously damaged. In some areas, it would not be an exaggeration to describe it as a scene of chaos and conflict.

Given the detailed execution, supervision, and protection plan of the Han Hai Territory, logically speaking, no force would be so foolish as to create trouble and cause conflict for the Han Hai Territory after investing a lot of money and supplying a large number of talents.

After all, the tender documents clearly state the breach of contract clauses and joint liability.

However, common sense is not always applicable.

In fact, while the countries or forces that have reached cooperation agreements with Han Hai Ling may not have malicious intent, there are still many situations that they themselves cannot control.

For example, some aristocratic children, blinded by greed, reverted to their old ways.

Just as many slaves would kneel before their masters without thinking, many masters would also raise their whips upon seeing slaves; this is a kind of two-way conditioned reflex.

Those young nobles who have been immersed in the old order for decades, even if they can memorize the requirements perfectly in the training classes in Xuan Shui City, will have the ghosts of the past quietly return once they leave that strictly constrained environment and face the real world.

Seeing those slaves with their miserable faces and hunched backs, one can't help but feel a physical discomfort from the inside out.

Just like some Celestial Dragons on Earth seeing mainlanders or city dwellers seeing country bumpkins, this kind of physiological discomfort can sometimes even override reason.

Just two weeks into the pilot program, more than twenty bureaucrats and clerks applied to resign from their posts, citing reasons such as "unable to tolerate living as equals with slaves" and "the air was filled with a nauseating smell of ignorance."

Han Hai was relatively polite to these people, agreeing to their applications, arranging handovers, deducting their security deposits, and notifying their original work units to come and pick them up. This only caused a little trouble for Han Hai's personnel department, and a bright red mark would be placed on this person's file.

That basically means they'll never hire you again.

Even worse are those who can't stand it but refuse to leave, and those who stay but can't resist.

In Meizi Village, in the central part of Linhai County, a heinous incident occurred in which a teacher was assigned to beat a student in class, causing serious injury.

The minor nobleman from the Thirteen Tribes of Xiyue, enraged that a child born of slavery had contradicted him, raised a heavy stone slab and smashed it down on the child's head. Blood stained the classroom and the horrified eyes of the others.

On the day of the incident, Kashu, the leader of the Xiyue student group and a member of the Long Spear tribe, rode to the scene in Meizi Village. In front of a group of terrified villagers and the Hanhai Sheriff who had rushed to the scene, he drew his scimitar and swiftly and decisively took the head of the limp nobleman. He then returned to Xuanshui to apologize to Lord Chen Mo.

If the trial were presided over by the Han Hai Territory, this guy might not deserve to die, but just as he despised the lives of the lowly commoners, the nobles of Xi Yue also despised his life.

This is the norm on the Starry Continent.

Hanhai has a long way to go.

After this egregious incident was broadcast to the entire coastal county, it sparked a wave of calls to "retreat."

However, this can only be considered the smallest category of negative effects.

The third week of the pilot program began, what astrologers called the week of vicious dogs, with several violent incidents occurring in the coastal county.

These incidents are no longer isolated emotional outbursts, but reveal a certain degree of deliberate destructiveness.

The initiators were officials from various factions. Their attacks targeted slaves, civilians, public facilities and reserves in their territories, and even their colleagues from other factions in their territories. Their methods gradually escalated from simple instigation and fighting to arson, poisoning, and attacks on important equipment and facilities.

In just over ten days, seven of the "divine messengers" such as the Morning Star suffered varying degrees of damage.

Heran, who was in charge of evaluating the administrative management service team, was furious and overturned the table in front of the representatives of various forces who had been urgently summoned.

"You must bear all responsibilities arising therefrom, and Han Hai Ling reserves the right to take all necessary measures to deal with this matter!"

"Including war!"

The representatives from various departments were also extremely embarrassed. Those who were able to participate in the first batch of bidding were already carefully selected by the major forces. Logically speaking, there should not be such foolish people.

They completely misunderstand the situation. Do they really still consider Han Hai to be a small regional power?
Scouts sped out in all directions, their wings whistling.

Soon, with the help of the various countries' skilled memory recovery techniques, the interrogation results were freshly released.

These people aren't stupid, they're just plain evil!
The motives for these heinous acts all stem from conflict: one is internal strife, where certain political forces at odds with each other within the country want to use the territory of Han Hai Territory to trip up their rivals.

Another type is external conflict, which is a mole planted by one force in another to take advantage of the opportunity to deliberately create trouble and create a rift in the relationship between the target force and the Han Hai Territory.

The most intense fighting and conflict was between the Misty Moon Divine Court.

Although the personnel dispatched by the Divine Court were all selected from the Rainbow Holy City faction, it was found that many of them were spies planted in Rainbow Holy City by other holy cities. Their orders were to come here to create conflict between Rainbow Holy City and the Vast Ocean Territory.

Of course, Rainbow Holy City itself is no innocent either. Back when it was in Azure Sky Holy City, it had planted many spies in the Green Pine Kingdom and had even provided a lot of help to Princess Liushuang when she was on the run on the battlefield.

The spies in Rainbow City are also smearing and stabbing other factions in the back.

Every country and power has more or less resorted to underhanded tactics, and the reason these guys are so fearless is that the masterminds behind the scenes have given them guarantees or promises.

For example, as fellow "children of God," because they are protected by the "marks of God" from other holy cities, theoretically, even if these destroyers are identified by Rainbow Holy City, they can only be sent back to their original holy cities for punishment.

This is a tacit political understanding within the Misty Moon Divine Court.

But Han Hai Ling doesn't care about that.

"The murderer shall die, and the injured shall pay the price. This is the rule that my chairman established in his first year in Hanhai."

"In the vast ocean, the gods don't have the final say; my chairman does!"

Xia Yuanfeng stepped forward and firmly rejected the Mist Moon Divine Court's request to take people away. He directly arranged for a military court to conduct a severe and swift trial, first parading the most egregious individuals through the streets before publicly executing them.

Those who committed less serious crimes were sentenced to five to thirty years of hard labor, and were thrown directly into the Guri iron mine and the desert gypsum mine.

Farrell, both shocked and furious, went to several different places before finally managing to stop Chen Mo, who was in a hurry.

The high priest was panting heavily, his expensive "divine silk robe" covered in grass clippings and dust. However, this holy city high priest, who always paid attention to his demeanor, didn't care about such things at the moment. He practically pounced on Chen Mo's carriage, and the guards' guns were already pointed at his head.

"Your Excellency, I, Mistmoon, and my Rainbow City of Mistmoon, have always been your supporters,"

"As for those...those scoundrels, their actions were by no means in the interest of Rainbow Holy City! Please, Your Lordship, see the truth!"

Farrell paused for a moment, then quickened his pace, pleading earnestly with an almost desperate tone.

"The Seven Holy Cities of Misty Moon stand side by side, united by divine grace, and bound by a 'divine covenant'. All their followers are subject to divine punishment for their sins, but not to worldly punishment!"

"If this agreement is broken, we will be in a very passive position within the Divine Court. I implore you, Lord, for the sake of our past cooperation and the future of the White Deer Plains, could you... could you make some concessions? Let us take these sinners back?"

Faced with Farrell's eager gaze, Chen Mo simply shook his head.

"High Priest Farrell, the Vast Ocean thanks you for your past help and understands your difficulties."

"But you also have to understand my difficulties!"

"If no one follows the rules I set for myself, how am I supposed to manage this area in the future?"

"Furthermore, if today they are exempt from the punishment of the Vast Ocean simply because they are people of the Divine Court and have some kind of 'divine mark' on them, then tomorrow, will there be some kind of Silver Moon Guardian from the Elves, or some kind of imperial decree from the heavens? If everyone does this, how can my Vast Ocean Territory possibly govern?"

"If this door is opened today, will anyone be able to come to my territory and run wild just because they have powerful connections, and then just walk away?"

With each word he spoke, Farrell's face grew paler.

Farrell knew very well that this lord was a man of great ideas who loved to trade, but he had almost never seen him swayed by any interests.

Chen Mo sighed softly and pulled back slightly.

“Your Divine Court needs to give an explanation to your own people, and I, Han Hai, need to give an explanation to everyone who lives here.”

"The tender documents clearly state from the beginning that responding to the tender constitutes acceptance of all the requirements of the tender documents, including compliance with Hanhai's legal arrangements."

"People must be dealt with according to the law; that's the bottom line. However..."

Farrell looked up.

"The trial must be open, the crimes must be made public, and this should serve as a reminder to everyone in the vast sea. However, I can allow you to carry out the final execution yourself, as if you were to take the initiative to do so, so as not to lose face for your divine court."

"This is the greatest respect I can offer!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

During the pilot period, numerous problems arose and chaos ensued.

At this point, the benefits of using Linhai County as a pilot area became apparent.

Two divisions of the National Defense Force, one positioned north of the Illusion Flame River and the other south of it, formed a perimeter along the border of Linhai County. To the east, on the open sea, were patrols by the Naga race and steel warships of the Vast Sea Territory.

Let alone a few dozen saboteurs without military power, even if several large armies came, they wouldn't be able to affect the normal and stable operation of other counties in Bailu.

With the steady progress of the pilot area's work, the stage of dividing the land has finally arrived.

In the words of the lord, we have entered the deep waters of comprehensive reform!

Undoubtedly, the allocation of land ignited the emotions of the entire territory.

Having escaped slavery, with enough food stored in their house to sustain them for several months, and owning their own land, this was a life that most slaves could not even dream of, let alone imagine.

The bureaucrats at all levels of the territory had previously been puzzled by the immense effort and resources invested in educating these lowly people using the highly effective "Morning Star" messenger. However, some of them were now beginning to sense something amiss. A certain word was appearing more and more frequently in Professor Xia Wen's recent classes.

"defend!"

The word itself is not new.

The elves must protect the noble and great Silver Moon traditions, the Sky Empire must protect its long history and glory, the Mist Moon Divine Court must protect its supreme deity, and other nations and forces, large and small, must protect their countries, tribes, leaders, and benefactors...

These slogans are chanted and reinforced by every country and every power over and over again.

Of course, slogans are just slogans.

However, in the vast ocean, at this time and place, the content of this slogan has been completely embodied.

The Morning Star put it so directly—protecting Xia Yue is protecting ourselves!

That's right, defending territory means defending the work points on the ledger, the grain in the granary, the land allocated to us, and the new system that will not allow us or our descendants to be arbitrarily beaten, tortured, humiliated, or trampled upon.

Protecting one's own family is the primary motivation for protecting the collective!

Our ancestors loved their country so passionately because they deeply understood how, without the protection of the nation, internal and external enemies would trample upon the people.

As the concept of the nation has become strongly linked to changes in the lives of ordinary people, some of the concerns that HanHai officials had previously worried about have been quickly resolved.

One of the biggest concerns about the distribution of land and grain was that if commoners had their own property, they would prioritize private interests over public ones, which would hinder the overall development of the territory.

For example, in the past, these people couldn't even get enough to eat, so when the lord wanted to build roads and bridges, all he had to do was provide some food, and these guys would come running, clamoring for help.

But now that they have enough to eat and private land, who would be willing to contribute to the public works of their territory?
For example, the current population is limited, and space must be reserved for future population growth. Therefore, in addition to the private land that has been distributed, there is actually a considerable amount of public land.

These public fields also require the cooperation of the villagers to cultivate them.

Based on the most straightforward human nature, they would certainly take great care of their private fields, while neglecting and treating public fields with indifference.

In this process, supervising and managing them would inevitably incur huge administrative costs, which would be a huge burden on the territory.

In short, in the minds of these nobles, feeding the people was not a worthwhile endeavor, which meant that the grain in the hands of the lords was not as tempting as it used to be.

Not only did HanHai's own officials think this way, but officials from various countries and forces who responded to the bidding also almost unanimously agreed with this obvious conclusion.

However, when things actually progressed to this point, they suddenly discovered that education, which had previously been considered worthless to ordinary people, suddenly had a tremendous driving force.

The village officials of Shiquan Village now have much less work to do, and in their spare time they stand on the high slope in the village and look down at the vast farmland below.

Before me lies a heart-stirring scene of busy farming season.

This is the autumn planting in Hanhailing.

The rice seeds, delivered from the main city of Xuanshui, are said to be able to grow and be harvested even in slightly cold weather. After a short period of intensive cultivation, they have become lush green seedlings and will soon be planted a second time on this land.

The warm sun in the sky generously showered its rays upon the earth, making the newly planted rice paddies shimmer and sparkle. The tender green seedlings swayed gently in the breeze, forming a soft green carpet.

In the fields where rice seedlings are still being planted, the bright water reflects the white clouds and blue sky, as well as the figures of people busily moving about.

"It's so lively!"

Rydes from Xiyue muttered to himself, which resonated with the group of bureaucratic sons.

They had never felt such vitality in slaves.

They had all seen the labor in the fields, which was mostly lifeless and filled with bitter resentment. Only when the overseer's whip cracked could a few suppressed groans be heard.

But at this moment, in Shiquan, in the fields and on the roads, there were waves of jubilation everywhere.

The men, bare-chested and with their trousers rolled up to their knees, shouted work chants as they evenly tossed bundles of healthy rice seedlings into the paddy fields.

Their movements weren't particularly skillful, even a bit clumsy. This rice planting method was taught several times by technicians from the city's agricultural technology station. It was the first time everyone was practicing it, but their unprecedented focus was more infectious than any experienced worker.

In the paddy fields were the village women, bending over and using both hands to plant the rice seedlings one by one into the mud. The row spacing and plant spacing were not very neat, but it was clear that they had put their hearts into it. Sweat slid down their sun-reddened cheeks, creating ripples of large and small along with the planted seedlings.

They would occasionally straighten up, catch their breath, and chat loudly with the people in the neighboring fields, using a Xia language that was still a little awkward but already very fluent.

"When do you think these sprouts will produce rice? It's amazing that they can grow food even in this cold weather!"

"How can this be false!"

“Our lord is omnipotent. He said that if the land is to grow crops, it will grow even if it snows or hails!”

"Come on, if it weren't for the agricultural... agricultural technology station promising a minimum wage, you'd be in the same boat..."

"Don't talk nonsense! I've never doubted the lord, that's not true!"

The following content shifted to everyday family matters.

Whose son learns to read quickly and studies well, earning several extra work points for the family; who used their work points to order a piglet from the supply and marketing cooperative, making the neighboring farmers who can only raise a few chickens extremely envious; and, I heard that at the beginning of next year, the first exam will be held, and those who pass will be able to go to the city to work, wearing that smart and impressive official uniform...

The casual conversations were ordinary and mundane, yet they were filled with indescribable satisfaction and hope.

The elderly are not idle either. Their bodies have been broken down by heavy labor and beatings in the past, and most of them are no longer able to do heavy work. In previous years, they would have already died. But now, they are trying to find their own value.

They might be helping to untie the bundles of rice seedlings by the field; or carrying earthenware pots to deliver water and food to the working people; or using simple tools to clear weeds from the already planted fields; or carefully moving stones and hard soil to repair the collapsed field ridges.

Those wrinkles, once etched by hardship like withered tree bark, have now completely smoothed out, and his cloudy eyes, looking at the rice seedlings in the field, seem to suddenly reflect a different kind of brilliance.

The most lively ones are the children.

They were like a tireless flock of little mice and sparrows, running and playing on the ridges and ditches. The older children were assigned tasks by their elders, such as pulling weeds or picking up scattered seedlings. The younger children mostly played under the guise of "helping," and occasionally a child would accidentally slip into the paddy field, drawing a scolding from their parents and bursts of laughter from the other villagers.

Farming is never an idyllic pastoral scene; it's about exchanging sweat for a harvest!
And now, what they are cultivating is the public field of the territory!

According to the documents of Linhai County, the order of cultivation should be private fields first and public fields last. However, this group of villagers spontaneously organized themselves and planted the rice seedlings in the public fields first. Throughout the process, the village cadres of Shiquan Village did not intervene at all, but just stared wide-eyed and watched in disbelief.

Why is this?

Isn't it just human nature to be selfish?

Shouldn't we have more "constraint management"?

How did these greedy, lazy, and stupid people become like this?
Zhou Wen and the others seemed to understand a little, but not completely.

As the veteran of the vast sea, Xiahou Dun, with his keen insight, put it clearly.

The veteran was the only one who personally went down to the fields and worked alongside the villagers. He had just washed his hands and was walking over with his trousers still in the mud.

Xiahou smiled in response to Zhou Wen's question.

"Who says they aren't selfish? They are selfish!"

"They've calculated it all very clearly in private. If they manage the public fields well, their territory will have money and grain, which will allow them to support a larger and better army. This will ensure that the system of this territory remains unchanged, that their land will always belong to them, and that their lives will not regress to the era when noble lords could exploit them at will."

"Without the public good, where does the private good come from?"

“As you can see, when working in the public fields, anyone who dares to slack off or cheat will be drowned in the spittle of the other villagers, and their whole family will be ashamed to face the consequences.”

"How could they not put in their best effort!"

Zain from the Misty Moon pressed a divine rune onto his chest.

"By the Seven-Eyed God, I have never been able to understand why these fools... these villagers understand it so clearly?"

"You've never gone hungry!" Xiahou Dun rolled his eyes at the charlatan. "They've watched their parents and relatives get beaten to death, frozen to death, and starved to death since they were little. Of course they can understand the life-threatening truths."

"A couple of days ago, during the 'Morning Star' class, it was said that you should have land under your feet, grain in your granary, family by your side, and light in your heart."

"Look how much they're crying!"

The group fell silent.

Zhou Wensheng served a bowl of rice to Xiahou Dun.

"Old Xia!"

"Ok?"

"This afternoon, I'll go to the fields with you to learn... learn how to transplant rice seedlings. Will you teach me?"

Xiahou Dun was stunned for a moment, then chuckled.

"middle!"

(End of this chapter)